Review of Verizon Wireless DROID Eris

The DROID is popular now, last month I looked at the Motorola DROID from Verizon Wireless and this month they’ve sent me its little cousin the DROID Eris for review. I’ve been using the DROID Eris now for more than a couple weeks and I have to honestly say that I’m glad to be putting it back in its box. The DROID Eris is just most frustrating and annoying phone I’ve ever used to date. It’s slow and the interface is just clunky and annoying. Everything you do with this phone seems to strain the processor, and it all just feels like it takes too much time to get anything done. They’re really aren’t many redeeming qualities to this phone, call quality isn’t that great and the camera isn’t too good either. Sure it’s a low priced phone, but I’d rather spend a bit more money and get a phone that works when and how it should.

We’ll start with the unboxing video first off:

..and some still pictures of course:

It comes with the USB cable for both charging and syncing:

The charger has a folding power adapter and a USB connection on the other end to charge the DROID Eris.

The DROID Eris is small and very lightweight phone, I was very surprised by just how much it weighed.

It’s a phone with minimal buttons on it, many of the functions are performed through the touch screen. There is a trackball at the bottom between the send and end buttons. Above the trackball is a series of touch sensitive buttons for navigation as well.

On the back you’ll find the 5mp camera and the Google logo

On the top is a 3.5mm jack, and on the bottom you’ll find the USB connection while the right side is where the volume up and down buttons are located.

The back cover just pops off to reveal the battery compartment and on the side is where the included microSD card goes.

Take customization to a whole new level. Create and switch between Scenes that reflect different moments in your life. Phones can often define their users. With the DROID ERIS by HTC, it’s the other way around. Experience the first phone that’s designed around the freedom of being you.
Make it mine. Stay close. Discover the unexpected.

Now operating on the Android platform, the new Droid Eris by HTC combines performance and functionality in one sleek package. Eris offers the HTC Sense UI on a 3.2”, touch screen zoom capability, a virtual QWERTY keyboard, and a 3.5mm headset jack in addition to the Virtual Keys (Home, Menu, Back, Search). The ultra–slim Eris can filter your Inbox, and stay connected securely with your office via HTC Sync. Take advantage of WiFi connectivity and its 5MP camera w/auto focus and video capture. Social networking is a breeze with easy access to your Favorite contacts, YouTube and Facebook. The Droid Eris by HTC is the ultimate in customizable handset that puts the customer at the center and it’s all about you, you, and you…

I’ve been using this phone for over two weeks and I have to say that I just don’t like it at all.

It’s one of the most frustrating and non-intuitive phones that I’ve ever used. It’s a shame that it bears the DROID name as it doesn’t even come close to the functionality and usability of the Motorola DROID.

Here’s a video of the interface and some of my thoughts:

As you can see I’ve got no love for this phone at all.

I still can’t believe that I tried to make a call and got the ‘All Circuits Busy’ message. It was a rather important call that I had to make but I couldn’t make it with the DROID Eris. I picked up my AT&T Tilt and the call went through the first time with no issues at all.

The DROID Eris interface is clunky and just downright frustrating. It’s annoying with all of the pop-up prompts that just don’t seem to want to go away either. When you make a call it will ask you if you want to save the contact, even if you say don’t ask me again it still will ask you again the next time. I actually found myself cursing at this phone, my kids were looking at me like what’s wrong with you?!?! There were times I honestly wanted to throw it against the wall and just smash it to pieces.

The number pad and the keyboard are just as annoying, everything just seems very close together. I kept hitting other number and letters, basically everything I did I had to go back and fix it. It’s just not very finger friendly.

The call quality was ok, but that was about it, just ok. many times people would have to ask me to repeat myself and I would have to ask them to repeat what they said. The call quality is just not that good. As far as signal quality I rarely saw above two bars of signal strength.

As far as web browsing is concerned, well the browser didn’t work half of the time, I’d touch the browser button and it would just go to a blank screen and nothing would happen. I got the updates that were available but still it didn’t work all of the time.

The interface itself is annoying, sometimes it would take 5 or 6 swipes to get the phone unlocked, it just doesn’t seem to be sensitive enough to work correctly.

There are times also when the interface would just lag or stop like it was loading something, you’d have to wait. It was for the simplest of things that this would happen like trying to make a phone call, I’d hit the call button and have to wait for the dialer to appear. Everything just seems to take a long time on this phone. Part of it has to do with the slow processor, but then again maybe not. My AT&T Tilt running which is the HTC TyTn II that runs Windows Mobile is over two years old and has a 400Mhz processor and it’s faster and more responsive than the new DROID Eris with it’s 528Mhz CPU.

The battery life seemed fine to me, I mean I got the rated battery life though 214 minutes of talk time isn’t that much that’s just a little over three hours.

I like HTC products, but I don’t know what happened here, if it is the phone itself or the Android interface that’s causing the problems with it.

Taking pictures with the DROID Eris I half expected decent ones, outdoors yes I got nice pictures but indoors even with a lot of light the pictures were very bad. I tried to hold the phone as still as possible but still the pictures are bad.

Here’s the one I took in my car in the sunlight basically, they’re nice and crisp and clear:

Now here’s the ones indoors. With these pictures I had the lights on and the window blinds open to even get more light in, but still they’re pretty bad. Close up, far away they’re equally bad.

Conclusion:

The DROID Eris is a low priced phone, it’s a budget priced phone that should appeal to those wanting to jump on the Android bandwagon. It’s a thin and lightweight phone that seems well made.

Other than its low price, the DROID Eris really has no real redeeming qualities whatsoever in terms of usefulness. If you want an Android based phone than do yourself a big favor and get the Motorola Droid, trust me you’ll be much happier.

I’m truly disappointed with this phone, I had high hopes for it, especially after reviewing the Motorola DROID. I was expecting something similar, but it’s not even close.

Pros:+Gets the rated talk time+Seems well made+Thin and lightweight+Low price

Cons:-Slow and just frustrating to use-Clunky interface-Short talk time or battery life-Not very finger friendly-Poor call quality-Poor picture quality-Poor signal

Grades:

Overall

Design

Performance

This product was given to technogog for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products. To learn more about our review policy please visit this page HERE.

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Wow. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone, ANYONE, have this much negativity over the Droid Eris. On the contrary, most technical reviewers give the Eris high marks, many even preferring it to its big brother the Motorola Droid. I must admit, I am biased, I have the Eris and aside from issues with Verizon signal strength at my place of work, I love this phone. My phone never freezes, I am able to customize it like no other device made, and the Android market gives me limitless pleasure.
I love my Eris. Maybe you just got a bad one?

Bill from Jersey

I’m researching this phone, and other than the fact that you couldn’t use the keyboard well (which is a matter of your fingers and dexterity) your review of this phone is weak. You were critical of the Verizon service, which living in NJ I can tell you is BY FAR the best service around. I have several friends who have AT&T and they drop call very frequently.

You failed to go into the capabilities of the phone….just that it was “slow” – I’ve read if you use the Google Widgets instead, the phone performs much better. None of the other features that make a smartphone “smart” were covered….

You might as well have been reviewing a Motorola Moto.

I’m shocked that you would sell yourself as a reviewer. I suggest you start going deeper into the phone’s capabilities. OS 1.5 differences vs. Droid, e-mail capabilities, browser performance (flash enabled?), etc. You also failed to mention that this phone is a variant of the HTC Hero, which is a very highly rated phone.

Again, I don’t own this phone, but found your review on it utterly useless. Your opinion is unfounded and you ramble for 2 minutes, then 4 minutes on how the box is packaged (who cares?!? about that…seriously…) then on how you couldn’t get a call through, something of your kids’ daycare. ….that is a Verizon issue…clearly tied to your locale. You mention “call quality is OK”….but other than that…you go into nothing….you mention that the phone is asking you to “do things all the time”….well? what things? What value did you add to your viewers? Ugh.

http://www.technogog.com Kristofer Brozio

Hi Bill..
I did elaborate on why the phone was ‘slow’

“There are times also when the interface would just lag or stop like it was loading something, you’d have to wait. It was for the simplest of things that this would happen like trying to make a phone call, I’d hit the call button and have to wait for the dialer to appear. Everything just seems to take a long time on this phone. Part of it has to do with the slow processor, but then again maybe not.”

and about the call quality.

“many times people would have to ask me to repeat myself and I would have to ask them to repeat what they said. ”

and the point of the review is to review the phone as is, like someone would buy it. Why would I go and add Google Widgets etc to the phone when that’s not how it comes?

and the phone is on the Verizon network, so why wouldn’t I mention the service? That’s a big part of the phone itself isn’t it? Or maybe you don’t get a phone to make calls?!

and why would I compare it to the DROID really, when it’s a different phone? different hardware etc

and how is my opinion ‘unfounded’ I’ve used it you would a normal phone and these are the issues that I came across…

and I did mention browser performance, the main fact was that it wouldn’t really work

yes everyone has a different opinion, or a different view of things, and besides how can you even comment when you have no experience with the phone?

and to Duncan:

Well I’m not the only one who doesn’t care for this phone:

PCMagazine gave it a 6 out of 10
Wired gave it a 5 out of 10
Mobiletech gave it a 7 out of 10

that’s just a few I could find quickly, I’m sure there’s more..

notReallyAccurrate

I handled this side-by-side with a motorolla droid before buying it a week ago. I would give it more like 8.5/10. It is a well designed, light, and really well made phone. It has great battery life, perhaps the slower cpu is actually helping with that. I haven’t noticed any excessive “lag” when loading programs. The blank page issue in the browser (hilariously) only affects google.com when you first open the browser – entering an address always works though (unless you are having 3D connectivity issues.) All of the gestures became intuitive and reliable after only 2 days of use.

“The pictures were really bad” is kind par for the course with all phones. 5mp in a camera phone will never get you the same quality as a camera with a proper lens. you just can’t get “good” pictures from a mini cam.

readySetAwesome

Also, my service has been perfect, I don’t know what you are talking about “had to repeat myself” when you say that. In places where my iphone friends can’t even make calls, I’m surfing the web and making crystal clear calls. Sounds even better than my last verizon phone with was really good.

Carmen Crishnaya

Wow…
I have the Eris & the Droid and I alternate between them both because they have somethings i like and hate in each.

I can say this is probably the most uninformative review i’ve read.

As a owner of the Eris, I’ll say this…
I love the eris’ 7 screens….Easy Customization
The Eris camera, imo, is better than the droids camera…But at the end it is a camera phone not a digital camera…and only 5mp at that
The Eris feels nice in your hand and looks nice…Very Sexy

As far as lag….Yes there is a lag. I mean it’s not OMG THIS IS FUCKING SLOW LAG but it’s still noticeable…..This is why I switch back to the droid because it is faster but to be honest…I’m learning to be more patient because the droid to me is faster but…that’s it….

I can customize the eris right out the box…You have limited customization(3 screens Vs 7) out the box with the droid and have to download other apps just to customize it.

It’s lighter and feels so much better in the hand…

The only major issue about the eris is…

1)Slight Lag…
2) Battery Life is horrid…I carry my charger everywhere

I recommend this phone over the droid not only because it’s cheaper but because it has so many more capabilities then faults than were mentioned in this review.

I rate it 8.8 out of 10 and the droid 7 out of 10

Hopefully this review won’t deter ppl from buying it(and this is not an attack to you) but it seems you focused more on it’s fault then it’s strengths and it has far more strengths then faults

Maria

I have to agree that this is very slow! I had a Blackberry Curve and wanted to go a step up, but boy, was I dissapointed. I’ve had it for 3 days and it’s going back tomorrow and I’m reactivating my Blackberry until I can get my hands on the iPhone. I am in shock that I prefer my Blackberry over Eris. It seems each time I open an app, the reaction is delayed, the typing is horrible ( and I am very familiar with qwerty touch keypad) and don’t get me started on the battery life!!! I probably got a bad seed but it doesnt hold for more than a 1/2 day. I took it back to Verizon and the lady was clueless about this phone! She didn’t offer to help the battery issue other that say: I think we have a case with a magnet…oh, how about a car charger??? Just an overall weird experience for the very first time ever with Verizon. And that says a lot since we are vip customers. I think the reviews would help people a lot more if people would specify which phone they had before. It would help you to judge what they are comparing it to.

Larry

in your little video you say you just want to make a call? then why use a smart phone?

Zach

Wow. I’ve never hear this much critisem for the Dorid Eris on any of the reviews for it. Most, if not all, reviewers gave it very high ratings. I’ve had this phone for months and have experienced none of your problems. But then again it could just be a bad phone?

karen

I completely agree. Not only does it not hold a charge, crash constantly and take forever to do anything, but it pretty much has a mind of its own! There have been multiple times where I go to call somebody, and it ends up calling somebody else. The touch screen is terrible, it takes forever to turn on (imagine if my phone was off and there was an emergency) , and nothing about it seems to add up with any of the reviews that I read before I bought it. Thank you for writing the only truthful review I’ve seen on this horrible phone!

Joe

The Eris is fine. Its not as powerful as the droid, but its also like half the size.

Lag is affected by how many apps you have running in the background and how many desktop “widgets” you have running. Get a task manager (free) to kill background apps, and don’t use widgets. It will be alot faster. Also make sure you have GPS and wifi turned off if you’re not using it. But really, even with all that running… its not so bad.

I feel like the guy writing this article just has no patience, so when he didn’t like one thing, he just wrote the phone off and didn’t give it a chance.

Also when its upgraded to android 2.0 (Eclair) it will be much faster.

Jeff

As a “phone” .. I rate the HTC eris 1 star. I have owned mine for 2 months now and barely get a signal where as other Verizon phones and the Moto droid are recieving full signal. I constantly drop call in the middle of the city where my other verizon phone never drops calls. The processor is slow.. many times redialing or hitting buttons because the opperator cant figure out if he has hung up or not because of the lag and presses a button a few times for it to respond. Android OS is great.. Maybe with 2.1 this phone might be better but I doubt the signal problem will go away. My buddy has the same phone and all the same problems. A group of us sat our phones down on a restaurant table last week, 1 Moto droid, 2 eris, 1 BlkBry, 1 Moto 385… Both Eris had 0-1 bar.. all others were at full signal. If you use the eris like an Ipod touch for just the apps or Android and no phone, you may be happy with it. Outside of that thumbs down. *** total

Amber

At first I loved the Eris, but now, it is quite annoying to own. The battery life sucks on this phone. My battery life will last for maybe four hours without a internet connection. I constantly have it hooked up to a charger. My phone dies so much that my friends have turned it into a joke and I’ve often had to rely on their phones to contact people. For a girl in her mid-20’s that travels a lot, it makes me nervous to have a phone that I cannot rely on if needed in an emergency.

I also just did a system upgrade that deleted most of my contacts and photos. With this upgrade, it is now even slower to load the home screen after turning in on. I have been waiting for over 15 minutes just for my screen to load.

While the features of this phone are awesome, the phone needs some major improvements. I really regret buying this phone because it has turned more into a hassle than it’s worth.

Dan McPherson

Well I have been reading through most of these peoples comment and of course the article and I don’t get why everyone is having problems with the HTC Eris. It was the first smartphone to run the Android Operating System. A week after buying mine I Rooted it from 1.5 to 2.1 long before the OTA updates. here is the link I followed http://theunlockr.com/2010/03/16/how-to-root-the-htc-droid-eris/ After that I flashed the Custom Rom called Evil Eris which is a link here to check it out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=650302. I must say it was the best thing I ever did having superuser permission is a trip. Amber states she is only getting 4 hours of battery life without Internet? I don’t get that? cause I’m always online and always on my phone and not only that I have it overclocked running perfectly @ 767MHz no problems with it getting hot or freezing up it runs smooth and even now I can get 10-12 hours off my battery IDK does she run a Task Manager? If you don’t know how to run one right then it’s kinda pointless though. I run an app called SystemPanel it’s the best of the best task managers I found out there in the market also run an app called AutoKiller which sets the profile you want. Another thing I want to address is my brother and his wife got the Motorola Droid and I am not here to say it’s bad but we were on a trip and we both have this app called Geodelic which tells you all about businesses in the area if your visiting or new to it and well we both went to load it to look for a place to eat and his would not pick up enough signal to run and mine took off no problem I get full bars like 90% of the time and it always says I’m running under 3G down where my brother lives they get the 1x so it may not be the phone but the towers still nonetheless the motorola droid is so square and heavy to bulky to handle and I thought about having the keyboard but with the slider and such thats just one more thing that could go wrong I know people that there keyboards stopped working it’s past warranty so they have to use the touch keyboard on screen. Overall my HTC Eris is the whip I can hear so well on it during calls it does not mess up whatsoever like the guy who wrote the article says and again that could have been the towers near him not the phone itself. I also run AppsToSDcard so my phone memory and ram and everything is almost always free I Have like atleast 100 apps on my phone and right now and I’ll tell you my the system storage on phone has 170M and I sit around 100M free all the time , the application storage is 159.5M and right now it’s at 104.6M, my Cache capacity is 130M I’m sitting at 91M. I’m running my phone way faster then the motorola droid which stock is 550MHz again I’m running my processor @ 767MHz all the time and it’s perfect. Happy Pawning

Dan McPherson

This MoFo deleted my post because I called bullshit against his bad review and stated facts not fictional hallucinations you Sir are a Idiot…here is my post again luckily I save all articles I write. Well I have been reading through most of these peoples comment and of course the article and I don’t get why everyone is having problems with the HTC Eris. It was the first smartphone to run the Android Operating System. A week after buying mine I Rooted it from 1.5 to 2.1 long before the OTA updates. here is the link I followed http://theunlockr.com/2010/03/16/how-to-root-the-htc-droid-eris/ After that I flashed the Custom Rom called Evil Eris which is a link here to check it out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=650302. I must say it was the best thing I ever did having superuser permission is a trip. Amber states she is only getting 4 hours of battery life without Internet? I don’t get that? cause I’m always online and always on my phone and not only that I have it overclocked running perfectly @ 767MHz no problems with it getting hot or freezing up it runs smooth and even now I can get 10-12 hours off my battery IDK does she run a Task Manager? If you don’t know how to run one right then it’s kinda pointless though. I run an app called SystemPanel it’s the best of the best task managers I found out there in the market also run an app called AutoKiller which sets the profile you want. Another thing I want to address is my brother and his wife got the Motorola Droid and I am not here to say it’s bad but we were on a trip and we both have this app called Geodelic which tells you all about businesses in the area if your visiting or new to it and well we both went to load it to look for a place to eat and his would not pick up enough signal to run and mine took off no problem I get full bars like 90% of the time and it always says I’m running under 3G down where my brother lives they get the 1x so it may not be the phone but the towers still nonetheless the motorola droid is so square and heavy to bulky to handle and I thought about having the keyboard but with the slider and such thats just one more thing that could go wrong I know people that there keyboards stopped working it’s past warranty so they have to use the touch keyboard on screen. Overall my HTC Eris is the whip I can hear so well on it during calls it does not mess up whatsoever like the guy who wrote the article says and again that could have been the towers near him not the phone itself. I also run AppsToSDcard so my phone memory and ram and everything is almost always free I Have like atleast 100 apps on my phone and right now and I’ll tell you my the system storage on phone has 170M and I sit around 100M free all the time , the application storage is 159.5M and right now it’s at 104.6M, my Cache capacity is 130M I’m sitting at 91M. I’m running my phone way faster then the motorola droid which stock is 550MHz again I’m running my processor @ 767MHz all the time and it’s perfect. Happy Pawning

http://www.technogog.com Kristofer Brozio

Dan McPherson – You are delusional.. What MoFo are you talking about that deleted your post?!?

Besides being delusional, you’re doing things that the average user would NEVER do, they would never root the phone or flash a custom rom to it, for that matter they would have no clue as to how to do it either, and most likely they wouldn’t want to void their warranties by using a custom rom that is not supported by the company… The review is not meant for a power user. I’m more that familiar with custom roms, and flashing etc, but I would never mention it in a review as the average consumer would have no clue as to what I was talking about, and I wouldn’t want them to undertake something like it with the possibility of bricking their phone and them of course blaming me..

You sir are are the idiot here, not I.

Dan McPherson

O.k. fair enough my point was not to have someone try something they are not comfortable with I was merely stating that prior to doing such my Droid Eris was awesome period I never had any issues with the kinds you stated you had, doing the Root and Flashing a custom Rom just made my experience as though my phone was on riods HaHaHa get it my Droid on Riods so I will state this do your homework before you try to mod your phone in any way, however I would think common sense would take over in any event. and the it is very unlikely you would brick your phone and as for the warranty who gives a shit really there so cheap you can buy another one. Maybe I should state I am not responsible for anything anyone else does to there phone common sense and common law would make that obvious, it’s called you are a free agent that is our epidemic in America everyone wants to blame others for there dumb actions and sue your ass. Like spilling coffee on yourself and suing McDonalds for your own Responsibility, try it some time society.

Mac

Your review could not be more on the money. I have had this phone for 30 days and after trying to convince myself how great it is, it’s going back to the store tomorrow. I have read all of the glowing reviews all over the internet which is why I’ve tried to stick with it thinking maybe I’m the one with the problem. But dropping a 10 minute call 4 times when my old school bar phone didn’t just weeks ago is not a problem with the user. Like Amber said, I get about 3-4 hours of battery life on it – whether it’s in active use or not – and then it needs about 2-3 hours to charge. It just makes no sense to keep this phone.

jeff

alot of what you say about the eris is true… but you miss TONS. the worst thing this phone does is make calls – like many people have said, it takes a long time and is unresponsive in that way. but EVERY OTHER THING about this phone is awesome. those of you who reviewed it poorly really sold yourselves and the phone short. the coolest thing about the phone, besides the uber-customizable “scenes”, is the google feature: navigate to:____
what that means is, i can pick up my droid eris, push the magnifying glass button on the front, and then say “navigate to best buy”. it asks “navigate to best buy?” and i say “yes”. it then goes to a map, showing me how to get to the nearest best buy to my location. then it gives GPS directions, step by step, OUT LOUD, telling me how to get there. this works with business names, addresses, museums, everywhere. it rocks.

summer

I just spoke with Amber who is a tech support supervisor and was completely shut down on this problem (HTC eris 2.1 update). All of the well documented phone problems since the update are now happening to my wifes phone and our business is suffering because of it. How can we be compensated for business and customers already lost by my company due to this problem. When i asked who is responsible for the update coming on to the phone, she blamed HTC. My issue is that we bought our phone from verizon and pay money to verizon so why am i needing to call HTC? They are taking advantage of the convoluted mess of having three companies involved being google, HTC and Verizon. Getting the same useless phone as a replacement is not the answer to our problems as we continually lose money with our phone based business. My wife and I were both very happy customers at Verizon until this update and the response. We had a fair proposal that would make the situation right which Verizon will not agree to. She compared it to buying a tv at walmart and that any problems with the item must be taken up with the manufacturer outside of the warranty. I say that is apples and oranges since a phone is made up of the hardware, software and service and much different than a TV. It’s like the cable company(verizon) selling you a tv then zapping it with something that breaks it. Please fix this VERIZON or you will hear from a lawyer soon and lose many customers!

Seattlebob

I have been reading these entires and am intrigued at what the challenges are out there. I have been a die-hard Verizon customer for years and find that the service has been good.

Now understand, I am far from a techinical guy, which it seems some of you are. I appreciate that. I imagine that my challenegs with this phone are somewhat rooted in my “non-techie” personality. I am the average joe and I am a salesman. I love the fact that I now have a smart phone and can follow my work email, facebook, twitter etc etc from my phone.

I have some issue with this phone and I am just not sure if it is “user error” or there is something wrong with it. I love the apps, I love the things that this phone can do (and there are probably 1,000 things it can do that I don’t even know about)…let me explain my challenegs: 1. Battery life is horrible – contstantly charging it. 2. Biggest issue: Sometimes it seems like the phone has a mind of its own: When I have the headset plugged in for pandora for example, or the charger plugged in, the phone either does things on its own, or doesn’t respond at all. It will dial without being prompted to, it is impossible to text or type antyhing while having something plugged in. It literally goes haywire. Do I have a lemon? Is the phone bad? I have little patience, and when I pay for something, I want it to work effectively. I reguarly have messages come up like “Error, this process has been stopped…” or something like that. Previoulsy, I had a Voyager (Don’t even get me started on that POS), and I could send video messages with no problem (Up to 30 seconds worth) but with this phone, if I take a video of my son to send to my momand it’s more than 8 seconds, my Eris can’t send it. it “exceeeds the message size” (Is there a setting?) My friends can send video up to a minute long on their phones. I also can no longer send a picture with a sound attached. (again, user error?)… The phone does seem to be slow in it’s processing. Does anyone offer a class that helps non tech guys like me get the most out of their phones? It may be part phone issue and part ME issue….

Again, not a tech guy at all, I just want my friggin phone to work!

Angry at this sucky phone

Terrible with a capital T! It lags, freezes, and one time it even dropped a call! It is hard to unlock the phone for calls, so I miss them. You can never click on exactly what you want. Today we had an “upgrade” and it completely deleted my pictures, ringtones, and contacts.

http://Yahoo ThisPhoneIsTerrible

I couldn’t agree more with the rating of this phone. This is the worst phone that I have ever used. I have hated it since day one. Not only does it freeze ALL the time, it doesn’t hold a battery charge at all. My husband got the same phone the same night and his was fine until about two months ago & now his is worse than mine. He keeps dealing with everything being erased because of the “safe mode” that he doesn’t even turn on.
I hate the touch keyboard, I am a great on a keyboard and have very small hands, but this thing is ridiculous, I barely even text anymore. People can’t ever get a hold of me because my phone never rings.
I have NEVER dropped my phone, but somehow the calibration is off and has been for some months now. The screen always opens to the very far left. My “favorites” are to the right of the main screen, but I have to try 5 or 6 times to drag my screen back to the right to the main screen or to my favorites to make a quick call. The phone freezes so much that I usually have to take the phone apart to take the battery out then start the phone up again. I couldn’t be more unhappy with this phone. I should have spent the extra money on a better phone. Thanks Verizon for your high prices and LOW quality products. Another one bites the dust!

Jon

Yeah, I totally agree with the author here. This phone frustrates me on a daily basis. There have been many times that I have been out drinking and just thought “I am going to just throw this phone as hard as I can and end my frustration”. It really is like trying to make phone calls on a 386 computer.

Jeri

The only problem that I have with this phone is the lag when trying to call someone. One time I got robbed and while chasing the guy on foot following him to his getaway car, I tried calling 911. But it kept freezing. it took about 5 mins for the phone to understand what I was trying to do. I was so frustrated!!
Other times.. while calling someone and I accidentally press the call button twice … it would 3 way conference call that same person a minute later while I’m already talking to the person.
other than that, I haven’t been having any problems with the battery life and I love the apps. I just wish this phone could do what its primarily supposed to be doing… which is to call people.

Lesley

I really loved my Eris, but lately things have started to go array. It constantly restarts on its own and freezes. One time I received a call and everything froze and all it did was keep playing the ringtone over and over again until i took out the battery. Since then it has frozen several times like that where all I could do is remove the battery to get it to restart. I have no problems with the apps running or with calls dropping or with pocket dialing like others have stated, but this freezing and restarting thing is BS. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Besides not having a flash for the camera, I really loved this phone until these new developments began happening. My GPS has been spot on and no offense, but i think the people who complain about having trouble answering calls from the screen lock are being affected by operator error. It’s a pretty easy phone to use. Perhaps I just need a new battery, I’m not sure. Any help or advice with this would be greatly appreciated. All in all, I do recommend this phone, I think I may have just gotten a fluke. I am eager to find out!

Mckenneyl2

I purchased a Droid Eris last May (2010) and about 6 months in started having problems. Finally, in December the phone kept freezing or shutting down. I was told by a Verizon Customer Agent that the phone automatically will update and the downloads corrupted the phones and now they have discontinued the phone due to the number of problems. Problem is when I tried to get Verizon to handle the situation (after-all the phone is only 7 months old) they wanted to give me a phone that is 1/2 the value of what I paid for the Droid ($199.99) and told me that was all they could do. I had to buy a phone with another 2 year contract for $299.99. Where is the customer service?

http://www.gslatecommunity.com/ Xoom Forums

The design of this cell phone model is very similar to that of the HTC Hero. The HTC Droid Eris does not come with a slide out keyboard as it uses a virtual keyboard on its touch screen. The black casing, rounded edges and soft-touch finish give it a classical and stylish look. This model is pretty slim, measuring 4.45 x 2.19 x 0.51 inches and weighs in at just 4.23 ounces. Despite its size, the phone feels very solid.